The invention relates to improvements in apparatus for filling bottles, cans and/or other types of containers with metered quantities of liquids, e.g., with metered quantities of carbonated beverages. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus wherein a beverage or another liquid is normally admitted into pressurized containers and a supply of beverage is stored in a vessel wherein the beverage is maintained at an elevated pressure.
It is already known to provide a container filling apparatus with a liquid-containing vessel which carries at least one metering chamber and at least one filling unit which effects the flow of a metered quantity of liquid from the chamber into a container, e.g., into a bottle which is designed to store a carbonated beverage. Reference may be had to the aforementioned commonly owned copending patent application Ser. No. 07/568,273 of Mette. The filling unit comprises a first valve which can be actuated to effect the flow of liquid from the vessel into the metering chamber, and a second valve which can be actuated to effect the flow of a metered quantity of liquid from the chamber into an empty container. The metering chamber carries or is adjacent a combined container centering and sealing device which is effective during admission of a metered quantity of liquid from the chamber into the container.
Carbonated beverages are often stored in a vessel wherein a supply of liquid is confined beneath a cushion of compressed gas. A regulating device is provided to ensure that the level of pressurized liquid in the vessel is substantially constant in order to establish optimum circumstances for the transfer of liquid from the vessel into one or more metering chambers. In many instances, the vessel constitutes an annular tank which is rotatable about a vertical axis and surrounds the means for admitting liquid into its interior. The vessel carries an annulus of equidistant filling units each of which comprises two valves and a combined container centering and sealing device. Such apparatus can be used, for admission into bottles, cans or other types of containers, a non-carbonated liquid (e.g., milk, water, a juice or a wine) or a carbonated beverage which must be admitted at an elevated pressure. The necessary equipment for admission of carbonated or non-carbonated beverages is incorporated into each filling unit. Reference may be had, for example, to published German patent application No. 30 25 786 or 22 57 449. The last named published German patent application describes an apparatus wherein a mobile vessel carries a set of metering chambers and filling units which can be actuated to admit liquid from the vessel into the respective metering chambers. The valves which form part of the filling units and serve to admit liquid from the vessel into the metering chambers extend into the vessel. The outlet of each metering chamber is adjacent a combined container centering and sealing device and is controlled by a second valve of the respective filling nit. The two valves of each filling unit are actuatable, independently of each other, by cams which are adjacent the path of movement of the vessel. The arrangement is such that the speed at which the valves of each filling unit open or close depends upon the speed of movement of the vessel.
A drawback of the just described apparatus is that the filling units are complex, bulky and expensive. Moreover, the vessel must be designed to confine certain component parts of each filling unit. Another drawback of such apparatus is that the metering chambers receive liquid from above; consequently, the gas which is confined in a metering chamber prior to admission of liquid from the vessel must be expelled by bubbling through the inflowing liquid. Therefore, such apparatus cannot be used for admission of metered quantities of carbonated beverages into bottles, cans or other types of containers.